For every person who participated in this, our participation in the third CARP UK 2-day Divine Principle workshop had a goal, an aim. Our goals were both personal and public. Personally, I wanted to create a physical and spiritual environment conducive to each participant being comfortable amongst a group of old friends and new faces and dare to challenge themselves. Additionally, I hoped that the content of the workshop conveyed by the lecturers and the various activities would allow participants to think deeper and broadly about how the Principle can be applied in our lives and allow young people to naturally grow to become leaders.

Beginning on Friday 24th March evening in Livingstone House, Chislehurst, the workshop got off to a great start, with a brief introduction to CARP UK from MC Patricia Monah and Jeungsun Shongwe. Then we play some exciting games for icebreakers, as more participants arrived to the workshop. It was a nice kick-starter.

The workshop Cooks, Nittaya Mould and Brian Monah

On the 2nd and only full day of the workshop, 21 CARP students arrived filling up the Chester room in Livingstone House where we hosted our Divine Principle talks and the main activities of the workshop. CARP committee member Carmel Mould (communications officer) gave the Introduction to the Divine Principle and The Principle of Creation lectures which were very personal and traditional in the sense that Carmel used the white board to portray meaning and visuals to key principles. A very clear and refreshing start to the workshops’ lecture series. The day continued with lunch prepared by Nittaya Mould and Brian Monah and then we had a great sports session in teams.

Later on, Amy Brown – (former CARP committee member 2015-2016) – giving the Human Fall lecture. Amy’s lecture was very clear, concise and poignant. It was clear that all of her previous experiences and personal investment into CARP and various programmes allowed Amy to give a very professional and deeply engaging lecture! After each lecture sessions, teams would reconvene and discuss the questions provided by lecturers, which were focused on the previous lecture content. A member of the team would then share to the whole workshop any key or interesting points discussed by their teams. These were great opportunities for participants to practice their public speaking skills, become more confident and comfortable to share their thoughts with a diverse group of people and engage with various topics.

The newest CARP member attending the workshop was Carlos Reinoso who was encouraged to attend CARP by John O’Neill who met Carlos and invited him to a 7-day Divine Principle workshop over 2 years ago. This workshop was his 2nd DP workshop. Carlos had a wonderful time and shared that the highlights of his experience were making new friends and the two lectures given by Amy Brown (The Human Fall) and Tim Read (The Messiah). The second newest member was Rahme Kahfaji who was invited to read the DP at Queen Mary’s by our CIG missionaries to UK, Kaori Fukushima (leader of CIGM).

A few members from team 1: Carmel Mould, Victor Bidard and Soo-hoon Jun (Special Youth Envoy to UK)

Sports in the park

In the evening of the 2nd day the theme was somewhat different. We hosted an entertainment evening where Carlos Reinoso, Carmel Mould and a few other CARP members were able to share their musical talents. We then had a quiz with prizes hosted by Yujin Endo-Mingala (Graphics Designer) and Carmel Mould, which was prepared very well and left a lot of people’s stomach’s aching from laughter.

On the final day we began with a lecture on Eschatology given by Yujin Endo-Mingala which is a very challenging chapter, as there are so many Biblical references. It was very neatly presented with Yujin tailoring the content in which as way that participants had enough space to make up their minds and build understanding through her personalised expression and their own discovery. Tim Read gave the final lecture on the Messiah which is always a challenging chapter to lecture on, because of its somewhat controversial nature. Tim Read was able to share the content in very formal manner, embellishing it with his personal journey of discovery of understanding the meaning of The Messiah and why we need them!

Discussions in teams and below Tim Read giving the final lecture on The Messiah.

Discussions in teams

Tim Read giving the final lecture on The Messiah.

Finally, we ended the workshop with the closing ceremony and gave each participant and staff member a certificate and gifts for their dedication.

Throughout the workshop there was a real sense of comfort and calm. There was no forced agenda coming from any of the staff members or a sense of expectations from the participants. All together 27 people attended this workshop and I believe that on a whole, all who attended this workshop were satisfied with the content, activities, location and people present. CARP is truly the platform for progression in many areas in the development of the youth community around the world. It is space for young people to express and invests their desires and interests and gain a clear understanding of the purpose of life through the meaning the Divine Principle provides.

A few participants shared that the main way they learnt to see the Divine Principle in their life through this very short weekend of activities was through other people. To simply invest in other people and be the best example you can be through the skills and talents, God can always be in our relationships and show us how to be true leaders through love. Upon reflection for me, that is living the Divine Principle, and I can say the workshop was an absolute success even if one person was able to learn to Think Deeper in that way!

I am very grateful for the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in CARP’s third 2-day workshop!